Sheikh appointed his son Ahmed, one year old, as his successor, and named the emirs who were to act as regents until he became of age.  Tatar, the most cunning and unscrupulous of these emirs, soon succeeded in obtaining the supreme power and demanded homage as sultan (August 29, 1421); but he soon fell ill and died after a reign of about three months.  He, too, appointed a young son as his successor and named the regents, but Bursbai also soon grasped the supreme power and ascended the throne in 1422.  He had of course many insurrections to quell, but was not obliged to leave Egypt.  As soon as peace was restored in Syria, Bursbai turned his attention to the European pirates, who had long been harassing the coasts of Syria and Egypt.  They were partly Cypriots and partly Catalonians and Genoese, who started from Cyprus and landed their booty on this island.  Bursbai resolved first to conquer this island.  He despatched several ships with this object in view; they landed at Limasol, and, having burnt the ships in the harbour and plundered the town, they returned home.  The favourable result of this expedition much encouraged the sultan, and in the following year he sent out a large fleet from Alexandria which landed in Famagosta.  This town soon surrendered and the troops proceeded to plunder the neighbouring places, and defeated all the troops which Prince Henry of Lusignan sent out against them.  When they had advanced as far as Limasol, the Egyptian commander, hearing that Janos, the King of Cyprus, was advancing with a large army against him, determined to return to Egypt to bring his enormous booty into safety.  In July, 1426, a strong Egyptian fleet set out for the third time, landed east of Limasol, and took this fortress after a few days’ fighting.  The Moslem army was, however, forced to retreat.  But the Cypriots scattered instead of pursuing the enemy, and the Mamluks, seeing this, renewed their attack, slew many Christians and took the king prisoner.  The capital, Nicosia, then capitulated, whereupon the Egyptian troops returned to Egypt with the captive king and were received with great jubilation.  The King of Cyprus, after submitting to the greatest humiliations, was asked what ransom he could pay.  He replied that he possessed nothing but his life, and stuck to this answer, although threatened with death.  Meanwhile, Venetian and other European merchants negotiated for the ransom money, and the sultan finally contented himself with two hundred thousand dinars (about $500,000).  Janos, however, was not set at liberty, but sent to Cyprus as the sultan’s vassal.  After the death of Janos in 1432, his son, John II., still continued to pay tribute to Egypt, and when he died (1458) and his daughter Charlotte became Queen of Cyprus, James II., the natural son of John II., fled to Egypt and found a friendly reception at the sultan’s court.

[Illustration:  069.jpg prayer-niche in the mosque of the sultan Mahmudi]